Various Artists - Funf

Probably the best minimal techno/ambient techno compilation from the greatest club in the world and the home of the scene - Ostgut Ton // Berghain. 2 and a half hours of cold steel. Pattern recognition, industrial growth and decay and the very beating heart of the dancefloor. Eat your heart out.

daybreak

Agoria - Balance 016

Influenced by jazz and Detroit techno, Sébastien Devaud aka Agoria is one in a long line of artists to emerge from the French electronic scene. This is his mix, for the brilliant Balance series. 

Honey oozing out of my speakers in 4/4. Worth its weight in megabytes and then some. This is one of the very best mixes I have ever heard 


just as the sun went down  

V/A - Cocoon Compilation J

Minimal techno that seems to have been made for the vast, vast depths of the ocean. Featuring most of europe's top techno gods, this compilation takes the german minimal sensibility and tops it up with a huge dose of hypnosis. Mesmerised, and reconciling.

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disc 2

Michael Mayer - The Immer Series

 Michael Mayer is an iconic dj/producer and electronic musician that co-runs seminal electronic label Kompakt with Wolfgang Voigt (Gas). He is a god of sorts when it comes to making mixes within the minimal techno/microhouse scene, as evidenced by the Immer series.

part 1
part 2

part 1
part 2

immer 3

Marcel Dettman - Berghain 02

Marcel Dettman is a demigod of sorts in Berghain, in Berlin. For those not in the know, Berghain is probably the mecca for electronic music fans, a legendary club that hosts the best Djs and considered immensely important to developments in the modern techno scene. Here's a mix Dettman put together in 2008, you're definitely gonna thank me for this later. A review from Resident Advisor:

With the rise of minimal, techno's centre of gravity shifted. The harder sounds which had long reigned supreme—The Advent, Surgeon, Speedy J, and Chris Liebling are just a few of the biggest names—fell out of favour, as most techno DJs started slowing down the BPMs and refilling their record crates. This shift was most clearly symbolized with the closure of the mighty Tresor club – for so long home to the hardest techno about. The general consensus was that techno had gotten into a locked groove—too loopy, too banging, too stuck in the same sounds—and its charms were tiring.

Yet recently we’ve been seeing the emergence of a new take on techno. And while Tresor may be up and running again at a new location, it is at another Berlin club, Berghain, where this renaissance is taking place. This new sound clearly shares some characteristics with minimal—most notably a Hardwax/Basic Channel influence and much slower BPMs—but it is clearly distinct, and undeniably techno. If you want a snapshot of the sound (and you can’t afford a ticket to Berlin), thenBerghain 02 is for you: this is one of the best, and most timely, mix CDs to have appeared in the last year or two.

In providing a clear manifesto for this new sound, it’s fitting that Berghain 02incorporates a number of specially commissioned tracks, including the records from veteran producer Tobias and newcomer Norman Nodge which open the mix. Their tone sets the scene for what to come: much like the architecture of Berghain itself, the sounds are stripped back, spacious, and hard-edged. Nodge’s ‘Native Rhythm Electric’ is dark, dynamic and captivating, and later in the mix, the thunderous ‘Vangal’ by Samuli Kempi proves to be a real highlight.

It’s a forward-looking variety of techno, but it’s also rooted in what’s come before. In the clubs, Dettmann likes mixes in the classics, and Berghain 02 finds space for three older records. Closing with Strand’s ‘Zephyr’ (1996) works perfectly, but the placement of the other two feels a bit forced. 'The Jacking Zone' (1986) is an amazing track no doubt, but its inclusion here disrupts the flow, while the abrupt crossfade that announces Kevin Saunderson’s ‘Just Want Another Chance’ (1988) is also rather awkward. These are minor complaints, though.

Elsewhere the mix is something of a definitive statement of where techno is at now, and where it is going. It’s a purist vision to be sure, but it is by no means limited: T++’s excellent ‘Mo 1’ is dubsteppish, ‘Warped Mind’ by Shed is standout neo-Detroit, while the piano riffs and gradual undulations of Radio Slave’s ‘Tantakatan’ underscores the link between Berghain and Rekids’ crossover hypnotism (Radio Slave fans new to Dettmann are advised to give this mix a try.) In short, it’s something of a guided tour of the most innovative and forward-thinking techno around.

Simply put, this CD is a winner. The track selection is near flawless and the mixing is of a standard you’d expect from a veteran like Dettmman. André Galluzzi’s first volume in the Berghain series was somewhat underappreciated, but that fate won’t befall Dettmann’s volume. Chances are we’ll look back at Berghain 02 as a defining movement when techno got out of that locked groove, and started moving forward again.


berghain 02 

Richie Hawtin - Decks, EFX and 909

Richie Hawtin is a legendary producer from Windsor, Canada and immensely influential in the development of minimal techno in the early-mid 90's. Here's a detroit techno compilation that many rank as one of his better works.

Ex-Plastikman techno artist Richie Hawtin's latest release continues his predilection for stripped-down beats and less-is-more aesthetics, slamming down the needle on a record of merciless mixes and remixes. It's quite a workout, with relief coming only in the form of occasional, slightly quieter thumps. Hawtin works with slices of his own material, along with the ruthless concoctions of Jeff Mills and a selection of other DJs from Detroit's influential techno community. Other eclectic influences make their way onto his turntables, the most obvious being a flash of industrial rock courtesy of Nitzer Ebb. Most of it gets swallowed up in Hawtin's metronomelike devotion to rote bpms and hard, minimalist stylings. Still, when it's done with this level of driving force, the sheer momentum is enough to force your limbs into involuntarily movement. From the opening pulse of Ratio's "Early Blow," Hawtin extrapolates on a short beat structure with perfectly rhythmic precision, growing and building through a series of melodyless phases. The album peaks with the Nitzer Ebb break, leading into Hawtin's short, irresistible remix of his own "Orange/Minus 1" then abruptly stopping with one of the album's few respites--a quick clip of movie dialogue. It's a brief pause, and the omnipresent beat restarts only slightly less demanding and brutally danceable than before. Hawtin's record is a stellar example, at a time when twisted jungle beats rule the dance floors, of getting people to dance a lot more by using a lot less (*)


Let yr body learn

The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

The Field is the recording moniker of one Axel Wilner, an electronic producer from Sweden. His debut effort, From Here We Go Sublime, is easily one of my favourite electronic records of all time.

There is very little else out there that parallels the mood set by this one. It's not trance in the literal sense - microsamples, cut up vocals, icy, polished soundscapes, a sense of complete isolation and longing for times gone hardly make for dancefloors for the regular ravers. But what this is probably what 'trance' has been trying to achieve in its aesthetic, that unabashed bliss/aural ecstasy hybrid. This is minimal at its finest, this is hypnosis at its finest. As someone once said - "The sound of God's walkman skipping" 

Sun & Ice 

Ricardo Villalobos - Fabric 36

A milestone in minimal techno. A great eclectic mix that highlights Villalobos' taste for the unusual (japanese percussion, jazz snares, crazy mumbled female vocals and hundreds of samples I will never be able to identify) that kicks off in sparse fashion and maintains the ideal of its minimalistic aesthetic, adding layer upon layer of sound as it progresses along the way. There is a constant timbral shift, from the lazy calm of the opener and 'Moongomery' to the more melodic 'Andruic and Japan' (the centrepiece of the event and featuring aforementioned crazy women and a lot of tribal clapping percussion) which carries the album into its festive second half. All the while, the Chilean producer entices the senses with a fine array of microrhythms that pulsate with textures, textures that build up and break down over time. This in turn makes Fabric 36 one hell of an inviting and a surprisingly organic listen, where the sum of the album experience is much greater than its parts; and where Villalobos displays a whole new breed of techno; one he's nurtured, let grow and from the sounds of it, eventually left on its own outside a late night carnival. Recommended to all fans of electronic music - don't sleep on this if you're looking for a mix that's greater than the sum of its parts. Also, Villalobos is probably one of the most exciting arrangers in terms of percussion on the electronic scene today.

4 wheel drive